I don’t mind labels, so long as people use the ones I give myself or they don’t use them to be derogatory. I call myself a humanist, a liberal, a democrat, freethinker, skeptic, a mother, a short or little person, a woman/female, an activist, and sometimes I call myself a democratic socialist, an atheist… What gets to me is the tone of voice some people use the words “atheist” or “liberal”, as though it were pure vile. On the other hand, some, like being short and female are quite obvious, rather one likes it or not.

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Mriana
“Sometimes in order to see the light, you have to risk the dark.” ~ Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) The Minority Report

That’s is obviously not possible. You may label yourself as a gourmet while munching on a $60 filet mignon, but to a cow (or a PETA fan) you are a bloody murderer.

But of course. That is how most vegetarians and vegans view meat eaters, but some, like myself, aren’t as vocal about it as PETA members are. That and if one wants to clog their arteries with filet mignon, then its none of my business. That’s between them and their doctor.

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Mriana
“Sometimes in order to see the light, you have to risk the dark.” ~ Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) The Minority Report

So you now understand that you are both, what you label yourself and what others label you? One of my favourite books is Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” One of the reasons why I like it is because Wilde wrote it imagining he is all three major characters in the book. Basil is who he thinks he is, Lord Henry is who others think he is, and Dorian Gray is who he would like to be. Read it. Everyone should read Wilde, Tolstoy and Balzac. They are the next best thing to evolutionary psychology.

But we all get them whether we need them or not. They can’t be avoided.

Lois, have you ever watched the Boggie movie “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”? Ok, of course they can’t be avoided. It’s how we sort out our World. We’ve been doing it since Adam named the animals (once again, being facetious). Think of a Vinn diagram; some even overlap. I could list any number of labels I use for myself and what others label me as well. You could too and so could anyone on this forum. And they shift and change meaning over time as we “gather more moss”. Labels also tell others what we think of ourselves and what others think of us. It’s really a communication tool and a place marking in the social hierarchy like “boss”, CEO, “mere member of the cube farm”, or friend just to name a very few of the many labels we’re all called at one time or another and what we call each other. For that matter, even our surname and given names connote meaning to us and others. I mean, you do know what “Lois” means. Right? Our surnames carry even more information such as place names, sometimes specific places, vocations like Smith or Schneider, animals, heroic deeds, weapons, etc. those are labels too. Everyone has both unless you’re a rock star like Sting (wonder What the hell he meant by that anyway?) or Prince if you remember him. They’re just labels too.